Commercial Sexual Exploitation Multi-agency Group minutes: June 2024

Attendees and apologies

Chair

• Jeff Gibbons, VAWG Justice policy, SG

Attendees present

• VAWG Justice Policy SG
• VAWG Equalities Policy SG
• Human Trafficking Policy SG
• Child Protection Policy SG 
• NHS GBV Network
• Skills Development Scotland
• Police Scotland
• COSLA
• Ofcom [in an observer capacity]
• Women’s Support Project
• Public Health Scotland
• The Improvement Service
• Shakti
• JustRight Scotland
• SACRO

Apologies

• TARA
• RoutesOut
• SOHTIS
• WRASAC
• Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities
• Amina
• You My Sister
• The research lead on the previous SG commissioned lived experience engagement
• Serious Organised Crime Policy SG
• Social Work Policy SG
• SG Licensing and pornography policy leads

Items and actions

Welcome and agreeing last meeting’s minute 

The minutes were agreed and will be subsequently uploaded onto the group’s webpage.

Discussion on Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference have been recirculated and will be signed off by correspondence once final comments have been received.  

Update on recent engagement on the development of CSE Hubs 

The current proposal looks at the phased introduction (subject to evaluation of the pilots) of 5 Local Hubs based across 5 of Scotland’s cities, which would co-ordinate local support from each local base allowing neighbouring areas to access support - each of these Local Hubs together forming Scotland’s National Hub on CSE. 

Local Hubs will bring together professionals and organisations locally to ensure they can work in a more co-ordinated manner (building on and expanding current good practice) to improve support for those affected by CSE. 

This approach is seeking to make local services more aware of CSE and to further embed good practice (and the policy principles on challenging demand for prostitution and improving access to support) within their approaches, ensuring alignment with their role in delivering Equally Safe. Critically the Hub approach will aim to ensure that mainstream services are more aware of the need to collaborate with specialist services.

The group will be kept up to date as the pilot area is considered and progressed. The aim is to have a Hub manager for the pilot in post by the end of summer/early autumn. 

A question on how to evaluate the success of the pilot/Hub was asked, and SG policy colleagues will work with SG Justice Analytical colleagues to determine how best to measure success and accurately evaluate the Hub approach. 

The hubs will also be informed and developed by continuous lived experience from those engaging with support services within the pilot.

Themed discussion raising awareness of CSE

Crimestoppers gave an overview of their related work on CSE in England which aims to build confidence amongst women involved in CSE to report violence/abuse. Their services includes their phone line providing translation services.

Within a Scottish context, Crimestoppers work closely with Police Scotland and there may be potential for Crimestoppers in Scotland to collaborate with this group in the future. 

Police Scotland provided an update on their developing campaign to tackle exploitation of those arriving from Romania. Two Romanian police officers have been working within the Human Trafficking Unit helping engage with women. This has provided greater insight into identifying potential victims at first contact in airports.

In relation to tackling on-street prostitution, Police Scotland spoke to previous operations that have been rolled out across different areas in Scotland and the need to look at best practice to determine how this could be adopted nationally.

I Am Me Scotland spoke about their developing resources on tackling exploitation- including an interactive training resource for schools to raise awareness of child exploitation. This includes an awareness video giving an overview of what CSE is. The resources were designed for teachers, housing officers, social workers and parents/carers and are accessible to everyone. The training resources will be launched on 17th July on the I Am Me platform. The next stage is to work with young people at Polmont to create exploitation awareness resources for them. 

Arrangements for next meeting 

The next meeting date is still to be confirmed and calendar invites will be issued to members shortly. Proposed items for the next thematic discussion include Data and a presentation from the Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities on disability and CSE.